Thursday, September 8, 2011

Cinema owners are happy that shows are selling out for the first time in years. PHOTOS: NEFER SEHGAL/EXPRESS TRIBUNE

LAHORE/KARACHI:

Outside the dingy and old Metropole cinema in Lahore, for the first time in years, huge crowds showed up for the premiere of Pakistani films Bhai Log, Love Mein Ghum and Jugni. The quality and effort put in the films contributed to what the producers claim was a successful run for Pakistani films that were released this Eid. “We have not had this much rush in years,” commented Ashraf who works at the ticket sale office at Metropole cinema. “Most of our shows are selling out for the first time in years.”

The huge rush is largely credited to the release of Bhai Log, which has turned out to be a local hit at most single-screen cinemas. According to Chaudhry Ijaz Kamran, the film’s producer, Bhai Log earned over RS9.7million in the first three days of its release, with many claiming it is the ‘highest grossing (Lollywood) film of the decade’. Syed Faisal Bukhari, who made his directorial debut with Bhai Log, feels the success of the film proves that Pakistan can produce quality films; “It was important that we proved that we could also make a quality film.” However, Bukhari rues that many multiplexes failed to give the film adequate screening, showing it at awkward times – for instance at 9am and 2pm.

The film, which revolves around the gangs of Karachi and the prevailing terror situation in the city, is easy to relate to and the action in it makes it interesting for the younger lot as well. Muhammad Atif, a young boy from a middle-class family, who was in line for tickets to the film, said: “This is something we enjoy as it’s got a lot of action. It’s an outing for us boys.”

Sheikh Adeel Imtiaz, the owner of Bambino Cinema, Karachi – which only screened Love Mein Ghum and Bhai Log – claimed that while Bhai Log did well, the former received a rather cold response; “It’s all about Bhai Log and more and more people are coming to watch it, overshadowing Love Mein Ghum’s chances, probably because the latter is more of a family entertainer and Bhai Log is action-packed.”

However, in certain high-end multiplex cinemas, the situation has been slightly different as Reema Khan’s Love Mein Ghum was relatively more popular than Bhai Log. Nadeem Mandviwalla, a known film distributor and also the owner of Lahore’s DHA cinema, noticed that Bhai Log was not as successful in some multiplexes because of two different viewing classes. He said that action films typically did not work in the multiplex audiences, claiming that the divide in audience’s tastes was visible in other countries as well. “Even in places like America and India, there are films that target certain audiences,” explained Mandviwalla. This divide, he says could be called ‘old school’ (which focuses on single screen cinemas) and the ‘new school’ (focusing on multiplexes). He also added that for films that are able to crossover would be massive hits in both markets – something very few films are able to do across the world.

However, despite the ‘relative’ success of these films, insiders have revealed that Indian films still managed to pull a larger audience. Even this week, Bodyguard – featuring Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor in the lead roles – saw housefuls while the cinemas screeningLove Mein Ghum, were filled to only 80 per cent of their capacity. “Like the past two years, this time around also, Eid belonged to Salman Khan as we are still getting back-to-back housefuls forBodyguard,” said Asim Qureshi, Manager Operations Atrium Cinemas, Karachi.

Overall, most cinema owners seemed to be basking in glory due to the recovery of business after Ramazan, with some sharing the opinion that cinemas have properly benefited from the Eid season after quite some time, citing it as a good sign for cinema revival.

This Eid can safely be called as “Eid of The Decade” for Pakistan film Industry. Not only Reema and Syed Faisal Bukhari were largely appreciated for their national language mega films, but unlike previous times; regional movies on this Eid were also applauded by their respective markets.

Love Mein Ghum by Reema Khan, Jugni by Syed Noor and Syed Faisal Bukhari’s action packed Bhai Log were amongst the top releases of Eid-ul-Fitr this year. Actor Arbaz Khan’s self directed Pushto film Baazigar also managed to pull a decent crowd in KPKH province, while other regional films failed to impress.

Although people had already made speculations about the Box office fate of three of these Lollywood Eid treats, but post release reports are always fun and interesting. So lets check out how people actually responded to these revival efforts for Pakistani cinema by some of the real patriots of this industry.

If you found that last sentence of previous paragraph a bit extra fervid, then just Relax! Because we were actually connecting that sentence with film Bhai Log that has been tagged same since it is released.

Bhai Log was one of the most anticipated movies of this year, and as expected; the movie managed to pull a huge crowd toward cinemas, the best part is that it’s still running quite successfully all over Pakistan, leading the other two Eid releases of industry. One major reason behind this success could be film’s ‘Action’ genre. We already have a established fact here that all over world action films account for a very huge market and just recently we saw a bumper success of Bollywood action film Singham on subcontinental Box office.

Despite getting mostly positive reviews and doing a huge business of more than a crore before its first release week, many are calling it to have an ‘Extra Patriotic’ feel. People are of the view that Patriotism was really exaggerated and story would have scored quite well without it. Music of the film has also failed to impress while action sequences, direction, over all acting and quality of the movie is appreciated most. All in all, it could be called as one fine effort by Syed Faisal Bukahri and now all eyes are on his next film project with quite a same genre named Saltanat.

Love Mein Ghum with its romantic-drama touch also attracted a huge crowd and received mostly mixed to positive reviews. Its interesting to mention here that according Galaxy Lollywood polls; LMG had the public approval ratio of almost 93% before its release while Bhai Log was standing far behind LMG with only 75% pre-release approval ratio. But quite opposite to which, even after crossing the business mark of one crore before its first release week, LMG is surprisingly said to be standing behind Bhai Log and facing a tough competition from Syed Noor’s Punjabi flick Jugni.

Although acting has been appreciated a lot in the movie, but people generally seems to be unhappy with the character space given to legendry Nadeem Baig and Indian comedy king Johnny Lever, and both are termed to be waisted in the movie. Besides this, as per public reviews and inside reports received by Galaxy Lollywood; Reema’s self-portraying factor in the film has also been criticized by industry insiders and general public.

Apart from all this, shooting locations, story, production quality and specifically the acting and return of Jia Ali in films have received some encouraging remarks.

Its very much relevant to mention here that as per cinematic facts and figures, Love Mein Ghum is noticed to be more popular towards the urban side of the country than the rural one and specially at multiplexes and the potential audience of the film has proved to be mostly families. Where as Bhai Log on the other hand has managed to target mostly the young audience and that too largely at single screen cinemas.

Besides two of them, another movie that has proved to be quite a crowd puller is Syed Noor’s Punjabi flick Jugni. Not only the cast value and past score of Syed Noor at Punjabi cinema is proving to be helpful in attracting people at large numbers toward cinemas, but the music of the movie has also made quite a mark in its target market.

As Galaxy Lollywood wasn’t really following the film because of the language policy, we would like not to comment on the public reaction it has received so far. But one thing that has been confirmed by our sources is that movie has not only crossed the mark of one crore at Box office but is also giving a tough competition to Reema Khan’s Love Mein Ghum.

Galaxy Lollywood congratulates the film-makers for the tremendous success their films have received so far and wish best of luck for the future of the movies. We sincerely believe that these films will not only be restricted to Pakistan but will also be hopefully showcased in international market.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

The Sean Ali Film Fatima releases online digital poster.
Fatima The Movie created history for the Pakistani media. The film team has now become the pioneers in Pakistan to make the first digital poster after Indian Bollywood YRF releasing film Ek Tha Tiger’s Digital Poster.Film shooting is over, editing in process & expected releasing of Fatima in October 2011.

Shoaib Mansoor‘s much awaited and most hyped, BOL movie, has now been finally released in India, UK, USA, Canada and many other parts of the World. BOL has also successfully managed to attract the masses and media outlets, as the movie reviews are getting published back to back.

In this post, we have gathered the excerpts of all major reviews done by various online Indian websites and magazines. This will indeed give you an idea as howBOL is being seen in neighboring country and worldwide, post its release. So here we go:

To see a Pakistani film that is better than most commercial Indian films, is embarrassing. “Bol”, despite its few flaws, becomes that minor masterpiece that eclipses Bollywood.

BOL is a courageous film that has the guts to expose issues plaguing the society. It raises questions, challenges the age-old customs and mirrors a reality most convincingly. A brilliant film embellished with bravura performances. Not to be missed!

while the good intentions and a thought-provoking story go a long way in making Bol a remarkable film, the lengthy run time and a narrative that lags intermittently comes in the way of the film being truly enjoyable. It’s a good film, no doubt, but also slightly underwhelming in totality.